He could hear waves crashing at the sand, the wind gently hitting his face, and could see the dark night sky filled with stars. He felt his body moving, but at the same time it wasn't; was he being carried? Then the person(?) stopped moving, as if he found a perfect spot.

"There, you see? An empty world, like a prison," the person said, sounding somewhat old yet his voice held some sort of power and strength. Then he felt his body being draped over something, lightly smelling of wood. "I imagine you'll be right at home."

Before he could do anything (why couldn't he move? or speak?) he felt his eyes closing by itself. As his lids shut, he saw empty darkness all around him. He couldn't move, he couldn't speak, he couldn't think, he couldn't feel.

He was just… there.

Hey, where am I?

He started. He didn't hear it, but he could feel the words forming around him. And then, he realized with a start, he could speak. "Who's there?"

A light appeared in his vision after he formed those words, quickly becoming bigger and brighter until all he could see was white. When it cleared, he felt himself going down, down, down, falling into the darkness, but somehow feeling like he plunged into the water. He felt himself drifting, small flashes of light (almost like bubbles) coming off of him but not actually acknowledging it he was still caught in a coma-like state. However, he felt his descent becoming slower, and as such started opening his eyes. It was a little hard, but when he started feeling his body becoming upright until his shoes hit something hard, he stood up straight and finally opened his eyes. All he could see was a bright white floor, but it wasn't complete, as a portion of it was jagged and broken. At the sight, however, he felt… detached, as if something inside of him was missing. As he continued to look around, that voice appeared again, but this time he wasn't surprised.

I'm a brand new heart.

He felt confused(?), and looked around. "But this is-…Why are you in my heart?" He was shocked to hear the emotionless tone, so weird from his normal, cheerful voice. At that moment, too, he didn't even know where he was, but the words just… came out.

The light brought me, the voice (or should he call it the heart?) replied. I saw it shining in the distance…and followed it here.

Somewhat confused, he felt his body move his hand to his heart. "Yeah," he replied. "That was my heart." Again, the words just kept coming. "But my heart is fractured." Was that the reason why the strange floor felt so familiar to him? "And now.. The little I have left is slipping away."

Then you should join your heart with mine.

"Huh?" he asked in his neutral tone. Then the (floor? no, not that) platform became brighter before his eyes. He gazed at the destroyed portion of the platform as it glowed brighter, and at the same time feeling like the empty part of his heart becoming… filled.

When it was completed, the heart spoke again. Now our hearts have touched. The platform underneath home become more solid, more sputtered, and at the same time feeling his body becoming stronger and feeling something warm emitting from his heart. Nothing else will slip away.

And one day… the voice continued, causing him to look up, you'll be strong enough to win back the part that already did.

'Wind back the part that already did?' He wanted to ask the heart what it was talking bout, but all he could say was, "Right. Thanks." At that point, he could feel gratitude in his voice as he closed his eyes, letting the soft heart soothe the dullness from his own.

It's time to wake up now. All we need to do is…

He opened his eyes.

His and the heart's voice resonated.

"Open the door."

Light flashed off the platform, taking the form of petals as color suddenly formed across the pedestal. When he cleared, he was shocked to find himself pictured on the platform, donned in his amour as appearing to be asleep, But one thing kept nagging at him: the barren land and rock formations appearing in the middle background of the platform. Why was it so familiar to him? But before he could focus on it more, his vision became black. When he came to-

He was staring at his ceiling.

He blinked, moving his gaze across the room to make sure where he was before he sighed. It was so weird. The dream felt so…familiar to him, like it was a past experience. He then sat up, placing his arm over his bent knee. Was it, perhaps, a memory? Was he finally getting his memories back? However, instead of feeling happy at the prospect, he sighed in frustration. While he was somewhat happy that he was starting to remember his past, he was somewhat angry that it didn't depict anything important to him. He started to wonder if it really was a dream…Wanting to get his mind off of his thoughts, he lazily gazed out into his window-

And gasped, sitting up and kneeling closer to the window as he placed his hands on the windowsill, gazed up toward the sky. Right hter, before his veary own eyesm was-

"A meteor shower!" he exclaimed, slamming his hands on the window before he maneuvered his body to get off his bed. When he landed, he started for the door, forgetting to close it in his haste as he ran down the familiar halls, feeling his body go on auto-pilot as moved. Reaching toward the impressive set of doors (but not currently admiring them like normal in his haste), he made sure to place a small silencing spell (courtesy of his friend) before slipping out of the crack and carefully (yet impatiently) closing the door. Then he ran down the stairs, almost tripping on one of the steps. Reaching the bottom, he stopped and groaned.

"I can't see much from here," he mumbled. Thinking of other places to go, he decided to head toward the training grounds, as he remembered a certain spot that was high enough to view the sky without anything obscuring his vision. After ten minutes of nonstop running (along with the stop of wanting to test his skills with the practice beams) he finally reached his destination. As he walked closer toward the edge, he looked up at the sky and awed. "Wow…"

"It really is nice, huh Ven?"

"YAAH!" 'Ven' cried out, twisting his body and praying to the heavens above it wasn't Aqua or Master Eraqus-

He pouted at his friend laughing so much she was doubled over and clutching her stomach. "That's not funny at all, Iggy!"

"You're right, Ven," 'Iggy' replied, standing up straight and composing herself. "It wasn't funny…" Her face broke out into a wide grin. "It was HILARIOUS!" She then started laughing all over again.

Ven tried to keep a straight face, but it dissolved as the happy atmosphere affected him too and soon found himself laughing along with her, enjoying the moment under the night sky.

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"Well that's weird," Iggy spoke after Ven finished explaining his dream to her. "Maybe it really was a past memory of yours."

"Maybe," he replied, "but I'm not too sure about it…"

He looked up to see his red-headed friend giggling. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing. It's just that you're starting to get better," she responded.

"Huh?"

"You're starting to question about things," she explained. "The more you learn about the other worlds and your past, the wiser and stronger you become in you Mind, Heart, Body, and Soul as well as your need to explore. That's an awesome habit to have."

She grinned, causing him to smile as well, before looking back up at the night sky, her smile happy and her eyes dancing with joy. Knowing that she'll become to engaged in her sight-seeing, he followed suit, leaning back on the grass and resting his head with his arms. As the two Keyblade wielders enjoyed the meteor shower, Ventus looked back at his friend.

It was amazing how, despite their close age of two years, the two were so different from each other. Both have nicknames and cheerful dispositions as well as a knack for daydreaming, but while Ven was a rookie and still in-training, Ignis was a Master and already experienced the joy of traveling and learning about the other worlds. She might not have a set skill in strength, defense, or magic, she counters it by balancing the three skills so well. It also helped that she started her training when she was only four years old. It may have been too soon for a little girl to start training, but she had emerged as a prodigy, learning the complicated spells and mastering Master Eraqus's techniques as well as teachings. While her strange interest for fire spells is a little…weird, she makes it up for her quick thinking and intuition, as she repeatedly showed off in her mock fights with Aqua and Terra. (He remembered asking her if it was embarrassing that their older friends were getting defeated by someone younger than them, and she replied how they got use to it. "But Terra… poor boy, it took him a year and five months for him to realize that he couldn't approach my level. Lemme tell ya, it was quite the site to see him falling to his knees and groan loudly until he landed on the ground face-flat. I mercilessly teased him for weeks.")

Even her attire told him about her level. She wore a red vest with her badge acting in place of buttons, the bottom spiked instead of the usual trimming and etched with small, gold diamond-like sewing patterns. Underneath the vest was a light black tank top that stopped just above her stomach. Her shoulders were bare (save for her amour similar to Aqua's that only covered up to her elbow), but the arms were decorated with gold ribbons criss-crossing until it disappeared underneath her black fingerless gloves. Her waist was covered by two red belts with gold buckles draped messily over her hips in a small 'X' formation like Terra's suspenders. She wore similar shorts like Aqua's, but the shorts had a small cloth at the back in a red color with gold trimming that reached her knees. Speaking of, instead of stockings, Iggy wore black boots that reached up to six inches below her shorts, the bottom of the shoes designed similar to Aqua's but with a smaller point at the tip and the 'wings' smaller and stretched until the boots were 'laced' with silver and placed at the top of her boots. Her left wrist had three gold bangles, each etched with the badge but in blue, green, and orange. All in all, she was, Terra (sarcastically) commented, "One heck of a looker." (He later received a black eye by yours truly.)

And the last thing was her head. While he, Terra, and Aqua had their hair short and (somewhat) spiky, she had curly red hair in a ponytail that reached all the way to the small of her back. Ven asked how she covered her hair in her amour, and she replied with a straight face, "Magic."

"If I didn't know you better, I would have thought that you were checking me out."

Ven blushed in mortification while Ignis giggled in her hand. While doing so, he caught a happy glee in her red eyes as well as the smile she tried so hard to hide. Afterwards, the two went back into another comfortable silence, greatly enjoying the show the sky was performing. But as Ven kept staring at the sky, he frowned in thought. "Why does this seem so…familiar?"

He blinked, surprised that he said that out loud, but was grateful that Iggy didn't notice (or just ignore it). As he shrugged off the thought, he slowly closed his eyes, enjoying the sounds the crickets were making and the warm presence of his dear friend. When he opened them, he noticed that the sky was clear and there was no sign of Iggy. Sitting up, he stretched his arms back and yawned, carefully lying his back on the ground-

And sat back up with shock. "WHOA!"

Turning around on his knees, he looked up (trying to hide his smile) to see his blue-haired friend smiling and giggling at him. "Gimme a break, Aqua!"

She straightened her back and lightly scolded him. "Ven, you hopeless sleepyhead. You know, you should have at least brought a blanket."

"which was what I had planned to do, but thought that scarring you would be better, Ven~" Iggy suddenly spoke up, causing Ven to jolt and turn toward the voice to see her leaning on the stone bench with a grin. He pouted while the two girls giggled, but then frowned in thought.

"But-did I dream that place up?" he thought out loud, catching the girls' attention. "It really felt like I'd been there before.. Looking up at the stars…" he then 'ah'ed as Aqua suddenly rubbed his head with a chuckle. Looking up, he saw Aqua crouched in front of him while Iggy stood behind her with her head resting in her arms.

"'Cept you've always lived here with us," Iggy interjected, Aqua nodding in reply.

"Yeah…" he agreed, looking down a little bit, But then he brought his head back up with a smile. "I know."

He then got up and headed toward the edge of the cliff, his friends following him as all three sat on the edge. He then turned his head toward his companions. "Hey Aqua, Iggy."

Aqua 'hmm'ed while Iggy 'huh'ed.

"Y'ever wonder what stars are? Where light comes from?"

Aqua looked down in thought while Iggy looked behind her. "Hmm… Well, they say-"

"That every star up there is another world." A deep voice interrupted, causing Ven and Aqua to turn around while Iggy smiled. "Terra," she nodded.

"Iggy." he acknowledged. He then looked back at Ventus. "Yep, hard to believe that there are so many worlds out there besides out own." He then walked toward his friends. "The light is their hearts, and it's shining down on us like a million lanterns."

However, Ven looked at him with confusion. "What? I don't get it."

"In other words, Terra explained, "they're just like you, Ven."

Ven just got even more confused as he stood up towards Terra. "What does THAT mean?"

Iggy giggled, "Don't worry Ven, you'll find out for sure."

Terra nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Just like Iggy said, you'll learn someday."

But Ven just got irritated. "But I wanna know now."

"You're too young to know now."

"Quit treating me like I'm a kid."

Then the two were interrupted by the sound of their two female friends giggling/chuckling. "Hey, what are you laughing at?" Terra asked.

"We can't help it," Aqua explained. "You two would make the weirdest brothers." She then chuckled harder while Iggy just kept giggling as the two males look at their companions with confused looks. But then they joined in the laughter, all four of them laughing for the heck of it and enjoying their moment with each other.

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As all four friends stargazed in peace, Aqua suddenly remembered her gift and stood up. "Oh yeah." She then walked behind the boys, causing the three teens to turn towards her. "Terra, you and I have our Mark of Mastery exams tomorrow." As she spoke, she dug in her short pockets for something until she suddenly grinned in triumph. Looking up, she raised her hands to reveal four charms in a star-shaped pattern tied with a brown cord. "I made us good luck charms," she explained with a smile.

She then tossed Terra his charm, who caught it and admired the orange-and-gold coloring. Ven stood up and looked at the charm with awe, then looked up at Aqua's "Here!" and caught the green-and-silver charm by its cord. He stared at his charm with awe before looking up at Aqua who had just handed Iggy her red-and-gold charm. "I get one too?" he asked with a grin.

"Of course," Aqua replied, the four friends getting in a circle to admire the bluenette's handy work. "One for each of us. Somewhere out there, there's this tree with star-shaped fruit… and the fruit represents an unbreakable connection. So as long as you and your friends carry good luck charms shaped like it, nothing can ever drive you apart. You'll always find your way back to each other." But then she turned back around with a sheepish look. "Technically, I think you're suppose to make them with seashells," she let out a laugh, "but I did the best with what I had."

Terra then shook his head in amusement. "Oy, sometimes you are such a girl."

"Hey, what do you mean, 'sometimes'?" Aqua questioned.

The argument would have been longer if Ven didn't ask, "So this isn't a real good luck charm?", in disappointment.

"Well," Aqua started, "that's yet to be seen. But Iggy and I did work a little magic on it."

"Really?" Ven perked up, looking at his female companions with curious glee. "What?"

Aqua and Iggy chuckled, raising their charms for emphasis. "An unbreakable connection." The two said in unison, both raising their charms up into the sky as the two males looked up as well. But then Terra started to walk.

"Well, tomorrow's the exam." He stated then looked back behind him. "Anybody wanna spar?"

And thus, the spar between the bluenette, the brunette, and the blonde commenced, their experienced red-head of a friend watching and refereeing their matches while keeping score and giving commentary. After an hour of laughter, embarrassing slip-ups, smack downs, and joy, the four friends decided to call it quits. The two younger Keyblade wielders commented on how their two elder friends would totally pass the exam. As they all shared smiles, they headed back to the castle.

However, Ven stayed behind, looking up at the sky in thought, a light frown on his face.

"Hey, we're gonna head back." Startled, he looked back at Terra, Iggy, and Aqua staring at him.

He nodded at him. "Yeah. Me too!" Then he ran toward them before going back into their leisure walk. As the two boys discussed on Terra's techniques he might use tomorrow, Iggy looked back to see Aqua staring at the sky too, but with a smile and her blue-and-silver charm in her hand. She smiled when she heard Aqua say softly, "Together…always."

But, as Aqua met up with the trio and headed back towards the castle, she couldn't help but shiver. What was this strange sense of foreboding? Will something bad happen at the exam tomorrow? But she shrugged it off, deciding to listen to her friends talk about the exam and gave pointers to her friends, allowing herself to forget the bad feelings and enjoy that moment in her life.

Truly, it was the best day ever, for all of them.

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That would be the last night we ever spent beneath those same stars.

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Hope you enjoy this chapter!

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